As a old man on the spectrum, I do fixate onto strange things every now and then. To whit, my current obsession is these old-school embossing tape label makers. I just got a box of these bad boys in the mail.

These are the kind of label makers that I grew up with. They are cool because they are incredibly analog- no batteries or computer chips, just precise mechanical parts. You move the little wheel around to the letter you want, and press down on the trigger. The end result is a durable and highly visible length of plastic tape with raised letters on it, giving it a pleasant tactile quality.

They were everywhere in my youth, especially in any kind of movie where makeshift labeling was needed to convey the idea of an outsider science experiment by a wacky scientist. Look familiar?

At any rate, the best ones that I have found are also the oldest, as evidenced with this huge beast, which is made almost entirely of die-cast metal.

I also like this new one I got that looks super old, like maybe from the 60s or 70s. It is mostly plastic, but it has a similar hefty build and is appealingly precise. Plus, I like the old plastic where they would make weird effects by swirling together different colors. Such a well-made little machine.

The rest of these are pretty much the bog-standard of what you would generally see back in the day. The Dymo brand was the biggest but there were other brands that were basically making the same thing.

Truth be told, though, I mainly like to to use this little wonder I picked up for cheap at the Goodwill. It is the modern idea of the label maker and it has a lot more options and is best for actually labeling things, but aesthetically the end result feels very sanitary and sterile. But hey, it gets the ol' job done.

But the old embossing tape labels are way more fun.

To make a cool Dymo-style graphic like the one at the top of this page, click HERE!